What’s behind the struggle of male students?

Christopher Medina is one of the most talented college debate coaches in the country. And we came close to never hearing of him.

He grew up in East Los Angeles, coming of age in the ’80s, when virulent gangs and drugs were infiltrating inner-city neighborhoods across the nation.

“I was hanging out with some nefarious people,” said Medina, now 42 and director of forensics for Wiley College in Marshall.

The tug of the streets, a broken home and parents without formal educations — those were the odds against him.

“I actually didn’t know I was an intelligent person,” Medina said. “I didn’t know I could graduate from college, let alone high school.”

After shattering his elbow as a high school freshman, Medina could no longer play football. He languished until he found something else that got his competitive juices flowing — debate.

“My first semester, I hated it,” he said. “But then I found somebody who wowed me and I said, ‘I want to do this.’ And since then, I’ve been working my butt off.”

In many ways, Medina’s odyssey illustrates the struggle that large urban school districts, Dallas included, are facing with boys, who are dropping out in large numbers and getting fewer college degrees than their female counterparts.

It’s a curious trend that took root in the late ’70s, and there are many reasons for it. More doors are open for women, and education is emphasized as the great equalizer — for women and ethnic minorities.

So it’s not the phenomenal rise of college-educated women that’s setting off alarm bells. It’s the severe slippage of males that has experts searching for clues and solutions.

Perhaps no one is more attuned to the challenges boys are facing in our culture than Dr. Christopher Howard, president of Hampden-Sydney College, an all-male school in rural Virginia.

Howard, 44, needs no introduction around here. The 1987 Plano Senior High alum boasts an MBA from Harvard and a doctorate from Oxford. He was a Rhodes scholar and class president at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

In his 4½ years at Hampden-Sydney, Howard has seen his own enrollment numbers go up. But he’s also begun paying closer attention to the dramatic gender shift in colleges. Women now earn about 60 percent of bachelor’s degrees.

“For the first time, women outnumber men in every category — bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees,” he said. “That’s happened in the last three to five years.”

Howard and other experts are focusing on the different learning patterns for boys and girls. And they’re exploring bold strategies such as single-sex schools to help get boys back on track.

“It’s not something that’s being forced down someone’s throat. It’s an alternative,” Howard said, adding that women, too, are worried about educational setbacks for young males.

“Some of the greatest proponents of Hampden-Sydney, of single-sex education of boys and men, are women,” he said. “Ask a woman who’s raising a boy and girl … if one of them is not quite hitting on all cylinders … and you’ll find quite often it’s the boy.”

Again, the reasons are plentiful: a breakdown in families, too many fatherless homes, a lack of role models.

But we can no longer afford to ignore the differences in behaviors and learning patterns, either.

“There are some challenges around the socialization of boys and girls in schools because their energy can be perceived as high energy,” Howard said. “Once you see school as a burden, it’s hard to do well; and once you’re perceived as a burden, it becomes harder to succeed.”

Medina is a good example. He felt stripped of his masculinity when he could no longer play football. He found himself drifting.

“I was very off track,” said Medina, who worked his way through college as a debate coach. “College was a pipe dream, out of the picture. I was just doing the bare minimum to get out, not realizing I had something to offer.”

Many of his peers fell by the wayside.

“I was going that direction until I got into debate,” he said. “It was a culture of competition which really pushed me. Had I not felt that, I probably wouldn’t have worked as hard and be where I am today.

“I’d probably be dead.”

James Ragland writes on race and culture, education, social services and public health. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/JamesRagland61.

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Most unforgettable experience on the job: Walking into the line of fire
while covering a hostage situation in Arlington early in my career and
hearing someone yell, "Get down, fool!!'' Being asked to work on
my wedding day, which forced me to figure out if I could say "I will''
before "I do.'' I did.

Something people don't know about me: I'll save that for my book, if
you don't mind.

If I had two spare hours, I would: Spend them with my son.

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